The Kindness of Strangers

Someone who wishes to remain anonymous bought me the first and third seasons of The Wire.  I can't thank this person enough.  (Now I can review the series ass-to-elbows before the fifth season starts.)  However, my anonymous benefactor had him a condition:

You've been victimized by a well-intentioned system sagging under its own weight.  No wonder you watch The Wire.  But your Amazon wish list confuses me.  [...]  You own the second and fourth seasons but not the first and third?  Have you not seen the first and third?  You need to.  [...]  I'm sending you the first and third seasons on one condition: you tell me and the world why you've only watched the second and fourth seasons.  Fail to do so and expect a visit from my man Omar.

I wish I had a more interesting explanation.  I've seen the first and third, but came to own the second and fourth under odd circumstances: 

My best friend from Baton Rouge came out to visit last month.  He'd seen the first season.  The second season was playing on HBO On Demand. 

Then it wasn't. 

So we trekked to Best Buy and he bought me the second season.  The day before he left, the third season appeared On Demand. 

We watched until the wee hours of the night and then he went home.

Two weeks later a package arrived on my stoop.  My friend had ordered me a copy of the fourth season to thank me for putting him up. 

And that is how I came to own the second and fourth seasons of The Wire.

Comments

[mantis]

I've been re-watching the first four seasons as they appear on On-Demand in anticipation of the fifth. Best show ever on television.